Talidon - Introduction

[This "dust jacket" introduction came to me one afternoon way back when... then became so much more. This is the beginning of the fiction stories I will continue to post in my blog.]

In an age long since past, our peoples thrived in these lands at what many say was our civilization’s height. The great dwarf-built cities, with their spires reaching to the gods, protected all they oversaw.

That was before the dragons came and plunged our world into centuries of darkness. The Slaughtering saw the proud elves hunted to near extinction, the brave dwarves decimated in battle and driven back to their ancestral mountain halls. The humans who stood beside those warriors died on the fields of battle... those that ran were enslaved or worse. The orcs and goblinoids played to the dragons’ egos and found a place in their hordes. Some of our peoples turned against us and entered into the dragons’ service as well, though most were eventually killed as their greed overtook their dark loyalty.

It is only in recent memory that our peoples have regained footholds in our ancient homes, allowing the seeds of our once great civilization to sprout in the hopes that we will see it grow to the lofty heights once again. Much is lost that we once were, and much remains hidden to us, but with each day we recover the precious knowledge and artifacts of our forebears.

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• "In an age long since past ... was our civilization's height." - roughly 750 years ago (30 generations), though I'm seriously thinking of dropping this to about 200 years.
• "the dragons came and plunged our world into centuries of darkness" - again, roughly 750 years ago. It is said that the Slaughtering swept across the land from one coast to another like a wave of blood and destruction. Again, I'm seriously thinking of dropping this to about 200 years.
• "in recent memory... our peoples have regained... our ancient homes" - roughly 15-25 years depending on the area.
• "Dragons haven't been seen in a while" - about 5 years since anyone has (reportedly) seen a dragon.